Ripple Invests in ZILO and Licuido to Advance Tokenized Funds on XRPL

Ripple president Monica Long says the industry is moving past experiments and into real-world use — and Ripple is positioning itself to provide the plumbing. On Aug. 4 Long told investors and clients that tokenized financial products are shifting “from bank pilots to production,” creating immediate demand for the operational infrastructure needed to issue, manage and use regulated assets on public blockchains. The comment followed Ripple’s announcement the previous day that it had invested in two firms — ZILO and Licuido — intended to add transfer-agency, token issuance and collateral-mobility capabilities to Ripple’s capital markets stack on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). Financial terms were not disclosed. Why it matters The distinction Long emphasizes is practical: a proof-of-concept proves technology can work; a regulated production product must fit legal records, custody arrangements and operational workflows that institutions depend on. Ripple says institutions are increasingly asking for full lifecycle support — issuance, custody, settlement, record keeping and the ability to use tokenized holdings as collateral — rather than another isolated pilot. A concrete example is Aviva Investors’ tokenized share class of its U.S. Dollar Liquidity Fund, which launched on the XRPL on July 29. Approved by the Central Bank of Ireland, the new share class lets eligible investors hold the tokenized fund through approved digital wallets while the underlying assets remain with BNY Mellon. Komainu provided digital custody support, and Licuido supplied tokenization infrastructure. The token mirrors the conventional fund’s investment objective, liquidity terms and regulatory protections — the blockchain token represents fund interest, while the short-term debt instruments stay within the regulated fund wrapper. What ZILO and Licuido add - ZILO (transfer agency & fund administration): Transfer agents are the legally recognized record of ownership for fund investors, processing subscriptions/redemptions, handling corporate actions and reconciling ownership records. ZILO launched an integrated digital-assets and transfer-agency platform on Aug. 3 and says it can manage both conventional fund units and tokenized share classes on a single system. Ripple frames this investment as a way to bring regulated record keeping into XRPL infrastructure without forcing institutions to rip up their operational controls. - Licuido (issuance, distribution, secondary markets & collateral): Licuido’s platform is designed to mint tokenized fund shares, enable distribution and secondary trading, and — crucially — let eligible institutions pledge tokenized shares as collateral rather than needing to sell them to raise cash. Note: Licuido Markets Limited is an appointed representative of Sapeno Partners LLP, which is authorized and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). That relationship means Licuido should not be described as independently FCA-authorized without qualification. Settlement and market plumbing Ripple intends to use its dollar stablecoin, RLUSD, as the cash leg in delivery-versus-payment (DvP) style transactions on XRPL — so tokenized units and cash can settle together, reducing settlement risk from asynchronous movements across multiple systems. Ripple also aims for tokenized fund units to become eligible for borrowing, lending and margin workflows soon after issuance, allowing them to be reused in capital markets operations. What’s still unknown The investments broaden Ripple’s institutional offering, but several practical questions remain unanswered: - Ripple did not disclose how much it invested in ZILO and Licuido, ownership stakes, revenue terms or rollout timelines. - There are no published transaction totals showing RLUSD settling tokenized fund trades at scale, nor figures for settlement volumes or collateral values using the combined stack. - Ripple has not named how many institutions are using its full capital markets stack or which clients are actively pledging tokenized fund units in live lending or repo transactions. Context on XRPL tokenization activity XRPL already hosts tokenized financial products and stablecoins. Data aggregator RWA.xyz showed $4.06 billion in represented assets and $313.3 million in distributed assets on the network as of July 29 — categories that are tracked separately and should not be conflated into a single pool of freely circulating liquidity. Ripple also works with Franklin Templeton and DBS on tokenized money-market infrastructure; DBS listed Franklin Templeton’s sgBENJI token alongside RLUSD and has signaled plans to explore lending and repurchase transactions using tokenized fund units as collateral. What to watch next The next measurable signs of wider adoption will be: - Additional named tokenized fund launches and public client disclosures. - Transaction-level data showing RLUSD used for delivery versus payment at scale. - Evidence that tokenized fund units are being pledged in live lending, margin or repurchase markets. - Uptake of ZILO’s combined transfer agency/digital asset platform by major asset managers and the launch of Licuido’s collateral marketplace. Ripple frames its investments as filling operational gaps between creating a token and making it usable in regulated markets. Long’s “pilot to production” claim maps to real product launches like Aviva’s, but independent usage data and client disclosures will be needed to confirm whether a broad industry migration onchain is underway.